Large Indian Bank bids farewell to Windows XP, upgrades 33,000 PCs to newer version of Windows

One of India’s largest state-owned banks, Canara Bank, has completely migrated from Windows XP. In the process, the bank upgraded around 33,000 PCs from the 12-year old and now retired operating system to a more modern versions of Windows Operating System.

Last week, on April 8th, the more than a decade old desktop operating system, Windows XP, reached its end of support. Which in simple language means that Microsoft won’t provide any further support to Windows XP (unless the organization pays), leaving its users on their own.

Besides security concerns, Canara Bank says that hardware compatibility was a big factor behind this upgrade. The bank states that the unavailability of driver modules for various new hardware such as printers, scanners, and biometric machines was one of the primary reasons behind this decision.

“We want to ensure smooth and streamlined customer experience without any stoppage in day-to-day banking operations. In addition, by migrating our entire base of around 33,000 PCs to modern Windows, we have overcome potential challenges of compatibility with modern hardware, software and applications. The upgrade will also allow our employees for transition to modern applications leveraging latest work processes and mobility,” said RK Dubey, Chairman at Canara Bank.

According to earlier estimations, until a few months ago, there were over 35 percent of the systems running Windows XP. Realizing the vulnerability and consequences it could have, RBI, nation’s central banking institution, and Indian Banks Association issued several security advisories.

“Running unsupported technology especially in the BFSI sector carries [a] huge risk. Canara Bank is amongst the progressive PSU banks in India that have taken the decision to move off Windows XP. They understand how debilitating and damaging the security breaches can be after support ends. We urge all businesses to complete their migration immediately, if they haven’t already,” said Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft India.

By switching to a modern operating system, the banks and other institutions will get better security, reliability and tools that favor productivity. In the past few weeks, we have seen many such institutions making the switch. However, there are still plenty of banks and ATMs that are running Windows XP.